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Share-VDE is a library-driven initiative which brings together the bibliographic catalogues and authority files of a community of libraries in a shared discovery environment based on linked data. Share-VDE expanded its scope to embrace a wider community of over thirty institutions also from the art and music domains, building the Share Family.

The collaborative endeavour, based on the requirements and perceptions of libraries, is promoted by Casalini Libri, international bibliographic agency and member of the Program for Cooperative Cataloging; @CULT, provider of ILS, Discovery tools and Semantic Web solutions for the cultural heritage sector, with input and active participation from an international group of national and research libraries and influenced by the vision of the LD4P project.

After two successful research & development phases launched in 2016 and with the cooperation of the Library of Congress, Share-VDE and the Share Family are now going progressively into production connecting the catalogues of over 20 libraries in the US, Canada and Europe. The collaborative initiative is potentially open to any library and is steered by the library community.

The Share Family of initiatives based on linked data comprises Share-VDE (Virtual Discovery Environment), Share-CATALOGUE (the Italian network of university libraries applying the Share principles), Share-ART (currently represented by the Kubikat-LOD project including the Art History libraries of the Max Planck Institut), and Share-MUSIC (a pilot in the music domain). The different characteristics of each field are a useful asset that can be used to the advantage not only of the Share Family as a whole, but for each single discipline.

How it works

The Share advanced discovery interface harnesses the potential of linked data to offer an easy and intuitive user experience and deliver ever more wide-ranging and detailed search results to library patrons. Library catalogues of participating institutions are converted from MARC to RDF (Resource Description Framework) using the BIBFRAME vocabulary and other ontologies, through a process of entity identification, reconciliation, and data enrichment also from external sources, in order to form clusters of entities such as Person, Work etc. The network of resources created is published as linked data on Share-VDE platform and a common knowledge base of clusters accessible in RDF, open to the entire Share-VDE community, has also been compiled. The Cluster Knowledge Base (named Sapientia) uses the model of the Semantic Web while allowing participating libraries to continue handling their own data as independently as possible. In addition to inclusion in the Share-VDE database, each individual library receives the information corresponding to its own catalogue in linked data; this may be re-used according to local requirements and with no restrictions.

Being part of Share-ART, Share-MUSIC, Share-CATALOGUE

The creation of more branches in the Share Family stems from the need to gather institutions with a similar scope or from the same domain in consistent groups of members sharing the same areas of focus as far as the type of bibliographic information conveyed in their library catalogue. This means, for example, that libraries specialized in the cataloging of visual materials (paintings, art works, photos etc.) are grouped in the Share-ART branch. This organization is reflected in Share software architecture, that is based on tenants infrastructure, and in the management of library data, that are treated according to similar requirements and characteristics. From the technical perspective this allows more efficient data management and technological sustainability. From the service perspective this means that dedicated applications that are out of scope for certain branches can be developed for other groups of institutions. From the users perspective this enables richer and specialized sets of resources to be consulted.

Main areas of focus

Building on the foundations laid by the previous project phase started in October 2016 and on continuous R&D activities carried on by ad hoc working groups, Share-VDE is now implementing production-level processes and additional workflows according to priorities determined by the Share-VDE community. The main areas of focus are: enrichment of MARC record with URIs; conversion from MARC to RDF using the BIBFRAME vocabulary (and other additional ontologies as needed); creation of a virtual discovery platform with an adaptation of the BIBFRAME data model developed to provide a linked data discovery option; creation of a database of relationships and clusters of library materials (Sapientia Cluster Knowledge Base) accessible in RDF; implementation of tools for direct interaction with the data, permitting the validation, update, long-term control and maintenance of the clusters and of the URIs identifying the entities; batch/automated data updating procedures; batch/automated data dissemination to libraries; progressive implementation of further use cases in the priority order defined by the community.